MARK Wilkie seems to have been terrorising Southport and Birkdale's bowlers since the days when Ena Sharples used to fix Minnie Caldwell with her basilisk glare in the snug of the Rover's Return.

And, in his pomp, the new Huyton skipper can inspire more fear than even the Weatherfield harridan managed.

Take Saturday for example. Mark Fletcher won what seemed to be an important toss and asked the home team to bat on a wet, green wicket ideally suited to accurate seamers.

Both Josh Hine and Dale Cranston enjoyed early success and the frequent stoppages for rain should not have made the surface less hazardous for the batsmen.

There was certainly no pressing need for the bowlers to do anything with the ball except find a decent line and length, a rather easier task than some members of S&B's attack made it look.

Nonetheless, Johnny Hine's accurate throw ran out David Heyes when the Huyton number three had made an invaluable 30.

And when Josh Hine held on to a caught and bowled from David Hutton in the 23rd over, Wilkie's side had been reduced to 67 for 4.

This was maybe 40 runs more than they should have been allowed in the conditions but it was still a score, which gave S&B a slight advantage.

Clearly aware of the importance of his wicket – Wilkie's eccentricities would get him expelled from the Addams family, but he is also an intelligent cricketer – the home skipper contented himself with making just 16 runs off his first 34 balls.

It was only after an early tea than he unveiled his full array of bizarre shots.

Reverse sweeps, thrashes over cover and mighty slogs over long-on towards Knowsley Safari Park were all on display.

Fletcher's bowlers were launched into the stratosphere, while the captain scuttled off to the pavilion to get more cricket balls for his opposite number to lose.

Of Wilkie's five sixes, four of them were struck off David Britton whose discomfort was compounded by the fact that he also had his man dropped twice, by Mark Baker behind the stumps and by David Aston in the gully. Suddenly, dislocating fingers seemed like fun.

Wilkie was eventually bowled essaying a reverse sweep off Patrick Jackson but his 67 runs from 73 balls had ensured that Huyton would have a formidable to defend.

In the event, S&B were left to score 172 in 37 overs and for over half their innings they looked like getting pretty close to their target.

David Aston, Mark Baker and Mark Fletcher all batted with well-judged aggression – although the loss of Patrick Jackson, attacking the young off-spinner Andy Davies before he had had a proper chance to assess the spinner, was a crucial blow.

At 95 for 2 with 13 overs to go, S&B were decently placed but the loss of Baker, bowled by a full length ball from Heyes for 30, and Fletcher, leg before to Joe Fargin for 33, in the space of three overs deprived the visitors of their two remaining best batsmen and the innings immediately lost momentum.

David Heyes collected three further wickets and his medium pace bowling was a classic illustration of the apparently revolutionary theory that if you bowl straight on a helpful surface, most batsmen will find it hard to score quickly.. The chance of an S&B victory disappeared within a couple of overs of Fletcher's dismissal and it was left to Jason Marsh and Kyle Cranston to bat out for a draw, a task they performed with admirable aplomb.

Marsh, as normal this season, played a customised innings brimming with quiet confidence and easy poise, while Cranston, who probably prefers morris dancing to blocking out, defended the straight ones and let the others go.

Cricket, though, is often a beguilingly simple game. It is only getting Wilkied that mucks the job up.